Travel Roulette: Only adventure seekers need apply

Brittany Smith (right) and her best friend, Joanna Brenneman, pictured here at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, flew to Denver with no pre-planning and just a backpack apiece. They adjusted on the fly to whatever came their way. “When stuff screws up, that’s part of it,” Smith said.(Photo: Photo provided by Brittany Smith)

If you could jump on a flight to an unknown destination at 5 a.m. tomorrow, would you do it? If you had to pack your belongings in one backpack, not knowing anything about the weather or destination, could you?

Brittany Smith did.

Smith, 25, has an extreme case of wanderlust. As the senior community manager for Yelp.com in Indianapolis, she travels regularly for work and has visited more than 30 countries on her own. She loves traveling so much that she and her boyfriend took a train ride from Chicago to San Francisco for their third date.

However, this game of "Travel Roulette" was played with her best friend, Joanna Brenneman. The two spent a semester at sea together in college and try to take one trip a year together.

At 5 a.m. one Friday in June, the duo arrived at the Indianapolis International Airport with one backpack each.

They had three rules: Spend no more than $300 on the flight, book a flight within one hour of arriving at the airport, and no researching flights in advance. There were a few things they had not anticipated.

The good news: There weren't many flights to choose from at that hour. They narrowed it down to a flight to Denver scheduled to leave within the hour.

"We thought maybe people had done this before; airports see all kinds of things, right? Turns out not. They're like, 'You want to do what?' They kind of freaked out a little bit," said Smith.

The women were eventually able to purchase a ticket to Denver on Frontier by calling the airline while standing at the check-in counter. Thanks to the kindness of a few strangers who let them cut in the security line, they were able make the flight just before the doors closed. The process took 45-minutes.

"It's fairly uncommon thing for leisure travelers," said Carlo Bertolini, a spokesman for Indianapolis International Airport. "Advanced purchases typically help you save a lot of money, so it's rare for someone to purchase a ticket at the airport day of."

Some airlines and websites encourage "last-minute" travel with lowered fares or choose-your-own adventure features like the Explore option on Kayak.com, where visitors can search for flights filtered by time of year, price, weather conditions and even activities.

For less spontaneous travel, Bertolini advises booking flights 14 to 21 days in advance.

But truly last-minute adventures aren't impossible. Approximately three hours after arriving at the Indianapolis airport without a ticket, plan or destination in mind, the women arrived in Colorado. The next obstacle was getting a rental car.

"I'd been to Denver quite a bit, so I knew the places we should go, but we needed a car to get there. The counters in the airport were all closed at that time of day (It was approximately 7 a.m. Mountain Time). That ended up being the hardest part of the trip."

After riding shuttle buses among rental car stations, a car was eventually found and they were off.

The weekend consisted of exploring Rocky Mountain National Park, then dinner at a bison farm in Cheyenne, Wyo. It wasn't glamorous — one night was spent at a Super 8 in Laramie, Wyo. Lunch the next day was a picnic of finds from the Boulder Farmers Market. There was more hiking, and the next evening, a lucky find of an $80 room in a nice hotel in Manitou Springs, Colo.

"Jo and I had both secretly hoped that Colorado would be it. But we could have ended up anywhere from Cleveland or Orlando — you just have to roll with it," said Smith.

But there was one thing she would have done differently.

"I wish I would have bought a paper map. Phones are great, GPS is great, but nothing beats a paper map. We wouldn't have driven 30 minutes to stay at a Super 8 in Laramie for no reason had we looked at one," she said.

Certainly Smith and Brenneman had the summer season working to their advantage. It's easier to pack a backpack for an unknown destination during the summer than the middle of winter. But forever the challenge-seeker, Smith said she'd like to try the experience when it's cold.

"People worry about what to pack, but who cares? You'll figure it out when you get there. Go completely blind. I'll definitely do again. Next year we want to go on biking — maybe around the Appalachian Trail. There are hotels where you have to hike 5-6 miles to get there. Or maybe a cruise down the Mississippi," she said.

Between her adventures around the globe, Smith finds inspiration from Afar Magazine and by browsing the website Atlas Obscura. For her, seeing the world isn't about high-thread-count sheets in luxury hotels. Smith believes there is a difference between a vacation and traveling, and she prefers the latter.

"When stuff screws up, that's part of it. It's flying by the seat of your pants. It's a rush."